Wednesday, July 6, 2016

UK citizens interested in working in Greece are naturally wondering how Britain’s exit from the EU will affect their eligibility. Following the result of the referendum, Brexit now seems inevitable, but it hasn’t actually happened yet. The negotiation of Britain’s withdrawal, once article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon is invoked, will be a lengthy process, and it may well be two years before changes are implemented.

So clearly it’s far too early to say exactly what the situation will be once the divorce becomes absolute, but at least for the academic year that’s about to begin, no changes are expected. Looking beyond that, it’s likely that the requirements will be similar to what they were before Greece joined the EU. So we wouldn’t expect UK travellers to Greece to need a visa, but you would need a residence permit and work permit in order to stay here long-term, and it should be a very simple matter to obtain these.

There’s no reason to think that there would be any change to visa requirements for citizens of countries outside the EU, so it would continue to be practically impossible for US citizens to come here to teach English. And as the only native speakers of English left in the EU, Irish teachers of English will be in demand.